Respect, please: clean up after pets 2011.06.29

Written by David Green.

An e-mail from a frustrated Fayette resident described a situation that isn’t unique to that community. Unfortunately, it’s a problem that’s encountered in many small towns and large cities: dog feces on sidewalks.

You see it on neighborhood walks. You see it in parks. Occasionally it’s right on a downtown sidewalk.

To the vast majority of residents, it’s simply incomprehensible that someone walking a dog would ignore what happened and continue down the sidewalk. As the letter-writer put it, “It’s unfortunate that the owner has so little pride in his or her community, and no respect for other’s property that they allow their dog to defecate and then simply walk away.”

It wouldn’t take much of an effort to remove it to a trash can, and at least move it off the sidewalk. Leaving it lay is really inexplicable, but that pretty much sums up the behavior of a few people who obviously lack some basic respect for others and their community.